The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Aug. 8 the restriction of imports from five more Chinese companies over forced labor practices involving Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
The new ban that takes effect on Aug. 9 is part of the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to eliminate products made by forced labor from U.S. supply chains under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).
The bipartisan act restricts imports linked to an ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in China’s western Xinjiang region identified by the U.S. government.
The DHS said that three of the five newly sanctioned Chinese companies purchased materials from Xinjiang “or from persons working with the government of Xinjiang or the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps for purposes of the ‘poverty alleviation’ program or the ‘pairing-assistance’ program or any other government labor scheme that uses forced labor,” which violated the UFLPA.
The three companies are Hong Kong-based Rare Earth Magnesium Technology Group Holdings, Century Sunshine Group Holdings, a manufacturer of magnesium fertilizer and magnesium alloys, and Xinjiang-based Tengxiang Magnesium Products.
The DHS identified the other two companies—Kashgar Construction Engineering, and Xinjiang Habahe Ashele Copper—for the violation of working with the Xinjiang government “to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, or receive Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups” out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Tengxiang Magnesium Products also violated the UFPLA in this way.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9 that the organization welcomes the inclusion of these companies in the Entity List of UFLPA, as “it sends a clear message to China that the United States will not tolerate forced, illegal, inhumane, and exploitative labor in its supply chains.”
However, he pointed out that the persecution by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of Uyghurs hasn’t changed despite the pressure from the international community. He calls on the U.S. government to take more measures “to combat imports of goods linked to Chinese forced labor and to avoid any economic transactions that support the Chinese companies [involved] and benefit the Chinese government.”
The Chinese companies didn’t immediately respond to the ban.
Since the U.S. government passed the UFLPA in 2021, 73 Chinese companies have been added to the imports ban list.
Chen Shih-min, associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9 that the continuing sanctions based on the UFLPA are important as they keep international attention on the CCP’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Chen said that since the CCP ramped up the persecution of Uyghurs, “it has implemented a complete blockade on Xinjiang for about 10 years and adopted a high degree of control.”
“It’s almost impossible for foreign reporters to enter Xinjiang to conduct unrestricted interviews and reports,” Chen said. “So the outside world, the international community, has no idea what is going on in Xinjiang, and that is actually what worries people the most.”
He said that judging from the testimony given in congressional hearings by some Uyghurs who escaped from Xinjiang, “the situation in Xinjiang is actually deteriorating, and the entire Uyghur ethnic group is in danger of genocide.”
Chen emphasized that the violation of human rights in Xinjiang is still very serious and the Western economic sanctions so far haven’t been able to stop or alleviate it.
“These condemnations and sanctions don’t have much effect; they are symbolic at most,” he said.
He called on the Western world to “unite as a stronger force to impose more serious sanctions on the CCP to put enough pressure on it” to stop its human rights abuses.
Wu Se-Chih, a researcher at Cross-Strait Policy Association in Taiwan, predicted that the U.S. sanctions and measures against the CCP will continue to expand.
“Because China will not improve because of some criticism of China’s human rights record by the United States,” he said. “Considering the socio-economic pressure that the CCP’s leader, Xi Jinping, is currently facing and his consideration of being able to sustain his regime in the future, it is unlikely that he will show any weakness towards the United States at this point.
“Therefore, it seems impossible that the relationship between the United States and China will improve under the situation. So the competition between the United States and China is likely to intensify in the future.”
Luo Ya and Lin Yan contributed to this report.